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5-15 Minutes Can Change A Lot

It’s Dave Foster. You might have already guessed that I’m the one who does the webmaster thing for the Concord Vineyard’s blog.

Something we encourage everyone to do during the summer is to take some time to reflect on scripture and try to hear what God is saying to us today through what we’re reading. It might just be a couple of minutes, but as we stick with the practice, I believe we’ll see the fruit of the effort.

So, in that spirit, I’m going to share my reflections with you. I read the Moravian Texts every morning. I have it sent to my inbox daily. I could pick some verses out on my own, but I’m finding that following the verses they’ve laid out for me has been very helpful to my knowing and using scripture in my life. It usually doesn’t take me any more than 15-20 minutes a day.

You can sign up for the daily email here They’ll only send you the daily verses, nothing else.
They send out 3 selections (in one email) every day, usually Old Testament, a Psalm and New Testament. Right now, I’m concentrating on the New Testament reading. So here’s today’s selection. I’ll share what I heard from it below.

Luke 9:12-27New International Version (NIV)

12 Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.”

13 He replied, “You give them something to eat.”

They answered, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.”14 (About five thousand men were there.)

But he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.”15 The disciples did so, and everyone sat down.16 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people.17 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.

Peter Declares That Jesus Is the Messiah

18 Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?”

19 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.”

20 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Peter answered, “God’s Messiah.”

Jesus Predicts His Death

21 Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone.22 And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”

23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.25 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?26 Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

27 “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.”

Reflection:

So my reflection today is that there are no limits on the power and love of Jesus. There is no reason not to ask Him and have complete faith that it will be done. He fed 5,000 people in the middle of nowhere. He gave up His life for me. He rose from the dead.

Action/prayer:

Today, Lord, I want to make sure that I’m looking for opportunities to act in faith. When someone tells me of an area they need God’s help, I want to pray for them and see that help come. Especially when it comes to emotional, mental or physical healing.